Jerusalem Countdown

Sixty Years of Gay Erotica

Plot

Simon Sheppard opens this first-of-its-kind book with a whirlwind tour of gay history as reflected in queer men’s one-handed reading, from the era of World War II - when sex stories were mimeographed in Tijuana and smuggled to the States - to today’s ubiquitous web-based porn.Included in the collection are well-remembered stories by renowned authors like Jack Fritscher, Aaron Travis, and Bob Vickery alongside old pulp-paperback pornography and up-to-the-minute “literotica.” A rough-trade biker takes a farm boy to the barn in a 1953 story by Phil Andros. Richard Amory’s 1966 Old West classic, “Song of the Loon,” sets a horny frontiersman among hunky Indian tribes. In John Preston’s 1979 iconic “Mr. Benson,” a submissive finds his ultimate master. In Sheppard’s wide-ranging collection, men have sex in a psychedelic-60’s Berkeley orgy, Under fire in Vietnam, and on a roadside somewhere in Texas. Populated by a colorful mix of characters, from leathermen, drag queens, sailors, and hustlers to uptight accountants and gay vampires - this is an outstanding new collection put together by one of gay erotica’s favorite voices.